Sunday, August 31, 2008

Basted

I love Cherrywood Fabrics. If you haven't seen them, oh well, they are gorgeous. Hand dyed fabric with a beautiful soft suedy feel. Mmmm. I treated myself to an early (very early) birthday present and splurged on some fabric, including two yards of turquoise to add as a border on my secret Amish solids L-O-V-E blocks quilt. I have so got to come up with a better name for that.

I told you how I ran out of basting pins while I was working on this puppy, right? I went and priced safety pins at the local fabric and sewing store. Fifty centimes apiece. That's 75 cents for every single safety pin. Are they kidding? So thread basting it is.

I need a lot of pins because I have to baste closely since I hand quilt without any kind of hoop or frame. Notice how my batting just isn't quite big enough.

I generally try to keep an extra half inch of batting and backing all the way around - I don't need any more than that. But this pieced batting came out about half an inch too short in one direction. Shoot dabnabit. But there it is. I'll leave it that way - no way I was going to take the time to add another inch of batting. I've done this before and it'll be fine. There is a spot where the batting goes up to half an inch into the quilt and I'll just stuff some batting there before I quilt it. Lazy Gal in action.

Oh, and I definitely baste on a table - have never actually used a floor and I can only imagine how much that would hurt my knees. I just drape the layers the best I can (I don't bother to stretch anything out or use tape or clamps) and then shift the sandwich around as needed to get each area.

The turquoise look great with Pokey's eyes:

So I've got a quilt to hand quilt on - finally! - but haven't started it yet. Instead I've been reading. I'll share the quilt book with you another day, but today it's geek time. I just finished Scott Lynch's book Red Seas Under Red Skies and it was excellent. It's an epic fantasy and sequel to Lies of Locke Lamora and believe me you need to read that one first. You've got magic, thievery and, in the second book, pirates. Very well written and enjoyable.

And I've also started sewing for yet another L-O-V-E quilt. What can I say, I'm on a roll.

The weather has gotten sunny and warm again. I walked up to Montmartre for an excellent Croque Monsier sandwich with salad and frites. So much for the diet, but it was worth it. The tourists don't seem to have left yet (and I can't believe how many Russians are here) but the Parisiennes are back. Yesterday our street was once again filled with cars honking. [I spell checked this, and Blogger thinks that should be: The Prisoners are back. Hmmm, I wonder if Blogger knows something I don't.]

19 comments:

I'm a long time reader (lurker)of your blog, and if you send me your snail mail address, I'll be glad to send you pile of safety pins. I have a longarm machine now, and my days of pin basting are gone.Hilda

hurray for something to hand quilt on. I pin baste the same way on my table or even on the king size bed with a cardboard cutting board under the sandwich- usually works just fine. I see solutions to your lack of pins-great to know folks are so kind hearted. I think I will find some hand quilting time today. and cherrywood fabrics? oh, don't tempt me!

I love the Cherrywood fabrics too. I worked for Dawn's (the founder of the company) aunt at Quilting Books Unlimited and I got in on the very first fabric Dawn dyed. Unfortunately this has been my "too precious to use" fabric for too many years. Now I am a sucker for the scrap bags that they sell to get a little piece of a huge variety of colors.

I love that you baste on a table, I do too. I have never been successful at basting on the floor, I pin the carpet to the quilt, not good. I think that gravity helps when using the table, with the bits that hang over the side, that plus smoothing out and I get a good flat baste. And for pins, to get the non-rusting kind, they are bout $0.60 here in the San Francisco Bay Area, that's why I use my 40% off coupon, saves my sanity. Hugs from California! :)

I too love those Cherrywood fabrics. I orginally found them at the Pacific International Quilt Show that I went to way back in the early 90's. I bought a kit for a vest that I never made. Just a couple of months ago I finally pulled those fabrics out to add to the rest of the stash where they really do belong. I think some of them will end up in my LOVE quilt too!

I'll have to give your basting method a try. I always use the floor and know that I will be sore for the rest of the day when I do that. Sometimes I will do two quilts on a day and then I'm in serious pain for a while.

I got a tip on pins a while back to buy in bulk from a company that sells to drycleaners. I bought a humongous box of them- way more than I need. I have plans to send you something (shhhhh- it's a secret) and I'll send you a bunch of pins too.

I love your solution to the batting problem. Once again, you are a great inspiration! Keep on rolling Tonya!

General comment, Tonya - I now love to hand quilt parts of my quilts. Because of you! You made it seem casual and do-able so I tried it. Now I'm hooked. I've had wonderful results by adopting your great attitude. Thanks!

I too baste on a table. My favorite table lives at my daughter's now, so don't know what I'll use next time, but it sure won't be the floor! (My knees are much older than the rest of me and can't take any abuse.)

Wow! Those pins are $$$! Once upon a time I bought a huge lot of pins (a dozen dozen - can't remember the term, drat it!) for not too much. Never seen such a deal again.

Thanks for the tips on the books. Those sound really good - will have to watch for them! Right now I'm reading "Sunshine" by Robin McKinley - another vampire one - sort of Buffy-ish.(that's a real word, right?) I'm half way, and enjoying it. Have you read it?

I love that term that Woolywoman told about - Rumspringa. That sounds like a great name for your quilt! Or you could just use SASLBQ. Nah, not so good. Too hard to say OR type!

Dawn talked about those hand-dyed fabrics awhile back. They sound simply wonderful. And of course you should have bought the turquoise, is there not a more wonderful color than that! Well, not that I can think of at the moment, except perhaps red. But still, all in all, a very difficulut decision. Me, I would have had to buy both. And what exactly is a "crocodile meunster" sandwich? Sounds very interesting.

I love your too-short-batting solution. I once had to take a pinned bed-size quilt all apart because the batting was WAY too short on one side--very poor planning on my part--but if it was just a little short, I'd just stuff in some extra too.

My oldest son has a friend Luke who is celebrating his Rumspringa time and has no plans of going back. While we were out West we went to see Luke ride the bronching buck in a rodeo. Jess says he is a hoot and loving every minute of the real world. Loving all the wonderful Love blocks!

About Me

I live in Florida with my seven cats and my husband. I've been a quilter since 1987 and consider my style liberated and non-traditional traditional (think Gwen Marston, Gee's Bend, and string quilts) and I watch way too much tv while sewing and hand-quilting.